Document management systems include copiers, printers, and other reproduction systems. These systems typically include a document management station, a document input station, one or more document processors, and a document printer. The document input station controls the input of documents for reproduction purposes to the document management system. Documents may be input to a document management system through a document scanner, network, or electronic media. A document scanner typically includes a platen and document illumination system for imaging a hard copy of a document to generate an electronic version of the document. A network connection may be used to communicate an electronic version of a document to document management system for further processing before printing. Likewise, a disk drive or CD-ROM reader may be used to input one or more documents for processing and printing.
Once a document is input to a document management system, the document management station may be used to specify parameters for processing of a document for the printing and/or finishing of the print job. For example, the color rendering of a document, duplex or simplex reproduction, paper size, and the like may be specified for a print job. Job finishing may include stapling or other binding required for the final production of a reproduced version of a document.
Systems for facilitating the identification and setting of parameters for processing documents during the printing process are well known. One such system is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,679. This system enables an operator to specify parameters for a plurality of print jobs and then monitor and/or modify the print jobs as they are processed by the document management system. While this type of system is effective for the overall control of multiple jobs through a document management system, it is not very flexible for the alteration of job parameters for different pages within a processing job within a document. The specification of job processing parameters for specific pages within a document processing job is known as exception programming. One system that supports exception programming is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,234. The system of this patent uses a display that provides a visual indication of each individual page in a document. The user or operator may scroll through the representation of the document and specify one or more pages for exception processing and the exception parameters for processing the selected pages. Likewise, the system in U.S. Pat. No. 6,100,994 discloses a document processing system that uses a depiction of pages in a document so that a user may identify pages and exception parameters for processing of the selected pages.
While the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,100,994 and 4,982,234 support the selection of pages for exception processing and the identification of the parameters for such processing, the exception programming may be rather tedious for documents with numerous pages. For example, the copy quality on different pages may need to differ. In known document management systems, the copy quality may be programmed as exceptions for particular pages by individually selecting each of the pages to be associated with particular copy quality parameters and then specifying the copy quality for the selected group. For documents comprised of many pages, the requirement of highlighting each page with a cursor for the selection process is time consuming and prone to error. Selection errors may not be discovered until the reproduction job is completed and significant expense entailed in the reprogramming of the job.
Another type of printing exception is not currently supported by known document management systems. This exception arises from certain types of paper having a different coating on each side. Current systems require exception programming for each side of a page so that the proper printing parameters, such as color rendering, are performed for each side of a page. Furthermore, imposition schemes affect the order in which page sides are printed. In order to program the exception parameters for page sides in a job, the operator needs to identify when the page sides are printed for programming the color rendering parameters for a job.
There is a need, therefore, for a system and method for identifying pages for exception programming without requiring an operator or user to individually identify each page in a group to which a set of exception parameters apply.
There is also a need for a system and method for automatically correlating specific color rendering to page sides in a print job.